Beavers heading across the pond
Blind River Beavers — who already have one more win this season than all of last — will head across the International Bridge to play the Soo Eagles tonight in one of five games on the slate in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.
The Beavers take a record of 1-2 into tonight’s 7:30 p.m. match at Pullar Stadium against the 0-2 Soo Eagles.
Under new coach-general manager Brad Barton and backed by a forward-thinking executive led by first-year president Rachelle Nyman, the Beavers have been out to try to make amends this 2015-2016 season after an abysmal 2014-2015 campaign in which they went winless through 56 games with a record of 0-55-1.
The Beavers initial victory this season — their first win since March, 2014 — came in their second game, an 11-2 cuffing of the visiting French River Rapids.
As the 43-year old Barton — as a player he was a first-round, Ontario Hockey League draft pick of the Kitchener Rangers — is working at re-building the Beavers from the bottom up, he is doing so in part with five players from the Sault Ste. Marie area.
Beavers who hail from either the Soo or nearby Echo Bay include forwards Jason Uhl, Max Khull, Mark Khull, Steven Khull and Bryce Campbell.
Uhl, a 1997 birth-year skater who played high school hockey with the St. Mary’s Knights in 2014-2015, has two goals for the Beavers in the three outings to date.
And Max Khull, a 1999 birth-year rookie who was selected by the Niagara IceDogs from the Soo Greyhounds minor midgets in the sixth round of the 2015 OHL draft, also has two goals in three games for the Beavers thus far this season.
Elsewhere around the NOJHL tonight:
Soo Thunderbirds are home to the Timmins Rock, Espanola Express plays host to the Cochrane Crunch, Elliot Lake Wildcats entertain the Powassan Voodoos and Iroquois Falls Eskis visit the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners.
PHOTO: Blind River Beavers forward Jason Uhl has two goals in three games thus far this NOJHL season. (Photo by Ali Pearson.)